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REVIEW: THE HUNTSMAN: WINTER’S WAR

The Huntsman: Winter’s War is a prequel/sequel/something, that takes us back into the magical realm of the first movie, Snow White and the Huntsman. In Winter’s War, we see our Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) setting out to find the magic mirror that was stolen from Snow White. And if this dark-magic-wielding-mirror gets into the wrong hands, it’s goodbye happily ever after. Not to mention underlying plot of forbidding people to love one another. I kid you not, that’s the plot. So for those of you who enjoy Snow White and the Huntsman, I’d be careful before getting too excited.

Winter’s War played up the storyline in the trailer to be an epic film with an incredible amount of action. This was a stunning film to watch, and I wouldn’t expect anything less since the director, Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, was the visual effects supervisor for the first film. I will give credit where credit is due. Winter’s War had some great action scenes. I have to admit Jessica Chastain and Hemsworth really did some fantastic scenes. But in reality, we received nothing but a mediocre piece of garbage.

First and foremost, I enjoy these actresses (Emily Blunt, Jessica Chastain, and Charlize Theron) and the characters they bring to life on screen. But in this case, I was rather disappointed at every single one of their performances. Blunt, who plays the Ice Queen, was not the “Emily Blunt” I have recently been accustomed to watching. Her performance as the Ice Queen, or Freya, often felt overly dramatic at times. Not to mention the film’s plot of Freya killing the adults in the surrounding villages and taking their children in order to form her own army. There are simply no words for the confusion I feel. As for Theron’s contribution to the film, I really can’t critique her performance of Ravenna, because she was hardly in the film. I felt that, because Theron has the power to draw in audiences, the production decided to put her in for about 20 minutes, which really doesn’t add anything to the story. In fact, Ravenna should have been left out completely. The screenwriters should have gone down a different route with this one. And what is there to say about our our Huntsman and his wife Sara (Chastain)? The charming back and forth was anything but. There were too many roadblocks in the film that prevented me from cheering on this couple. I simply felt no emotion at all.

Winter’s War is a rather predictable film. It tried to do what other fantasy films have done in the past (e.g. Lord of the Rings, Princess Bride, etc.). The film tried to have action, love, witty sarcastic one-liners, but to be honest, none of it was cohesive enough to make a great film. Director, Nicolas-Troyan, had a cast that could have pushed this film into overdrive. But in the end, it looks as though Winter’s War is not the fairest of them all.